


Quick Decisions

by bethagain



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Original Trilogy
Genre: Canon Typical Violence, F/M, and a bethagain typical teeny bit of romance, and an invitation to use your imagination for where this goes next
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-04
Updated: 2017-01-04
Packaged: 2018-09-14 16:29:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,240
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9193262
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bethagain/pseuds/bethagain
Summary: You don't know why Luke Skywalker decided you were someone to trust. But you're grateful that he did--and that you get the chance to prove him right.





	

**Author's Note:**

> A little experiment with the character/reader concept, written in a flash of inspiration when a tumblr friend was asking for Luke/reader ideas. 
> 
> Also part of my New Year's resolution to write. more. stories. Whatever they might be, and wherever they may take me!

“Stay there,” Luke says, outstretched hand pushing you back into the doorway as he steps out to face the bounty hunters.

There are three big guys: one human and two thicker, heavier Gethilians. Both Gethilians have their clawed hands wrapped around heavy _gethtana_ axes, sharp blades glinting at one end and electricity buzzing from the other.

You’ve still got your blaster, the one Luke chose for you when you first joined up. You were nobody, back then, a runaway from an orphanage on Orinda, grown up in the alleyways of Coruscant, tumbled into the Alliance when Han Solo ( _that_ Han Solo!) caught you spying on a secret meeting and hauled you out of the shadows.

“What should we do with her?” he’d said back then, one hand gripping hard on your collar. Everyone stared, hard eyes and stern faces, and you pictured your corpse rotting at the bottom of an airshaft until somebody behind him spoke.

“Invite her to join us.” It was a calm voice with a hint of humor.

As Han turned to answer he pulled you around with him, and you could see who was speaking. A young man, not much older than you, tousled blond hair and blue eyes above a simple black shirt.

Han snorted. “Why, is the Force telling you to keep her?”

“Actually, yes,” the other man said as he stood to come greet you, and that’s when you noticed: Blaster at one hip. Lightsaber at the other.

To this day you don’t know quite why Luke Skywalker decided you were someone to trust, but you’re grateful he did. It’s been dangerous and difficult, being part of undercover missions for the Alliance, but it’s been amazing, too. Finally having a purpose, standing up against the Empire, fighting for a reason instead of just scrambling for your next meal. It’s almost like having a family.

 

Right now, though, dangerous and difficult are understatements. You and Luke are at the tail end of a mission. You helped the Pamarthian Ambassador escape onto a Rebel ship, but instead of following her on board, the two of you ended up serving as a diversion, drawing away a whole squad of stormtroopers while the ship lifted off.

There’s a backup plan–meet a shuttle at a rendezvous point on the other side of the city–but you have to get there, first. You’re hungry and tired, and you both took a couple hits. Luke’s got a blaster graze across his thigh. You’ve got a makeshift bandage on your right arm where a piece of ceiling came down and notched a piece out of you on the way.

You thought you were going to make it. Hours of target practice, with Luke at your shoulder, mean you can fire with a precision even Stormtroopers can’t match. You’re a good team: he’s defense with that lightsaber, knocking away blaster bolts before they can get to you, and you’re offense, firing past him (and marveling, whenever you think about it, that he trusts you to send high-energy bolts screaming past, just centimeters from his skin).

Between the two of you, you took out that group of Stormtroopers with efficiency, nobody left to go for reinforcements. But now he’s limping, and the throb in your shoulder is threatening to throw off your aim, and these three guys have turned up out of nowhere to claim the price on both your heads.

“Stay there,” Luke says, and so you hang back for a minute, waiting to see what he’s going to do.

He starts with the lightsaber. Only thing to do in such close quarters, you think, watching him stand there, back straight, looking so tiny next to the two huge Gethilians and their oversized human partner. The human’s already got a blaster drawn. If you tried to fight close in like that, you’re pretty sure you’d be dead. Even if you could be quick enough to shoot first, those power axes would take you down in milliseconds–and take off a limb before you stopped twitching from the shock.

Everything’s frozen for a moment. Then there’s a snarl from the human and echoing growls from the Gethilians, and suddenly the saber blade’s a green flash, energy bolts bouncing off it, and there are two long-handled axes whipping through the air, coming at Luke from either side.

Your right hand is shaking, whether from the pain in your shoulder or from blood loss, you’re not sure. But you draw your blaster anyway, gripping your wrist with your left hand for balance, and sight along the top. Problem is, you’re not sure where to aim.

Luke ducks, drops to a crouch and then a roll, neatly sliding out from beneath both falling axes. He comes back up behind one of the Gethilians and you watch, impressed, as the saber swings in a neat arc, slicing the power axe in two without so much as singeing the huge hand.

Apparently, though, Gethilians get really mad when you ruin their traditional weapons. The huge form turns on Luke with fantastic speed, hand reaching out to try to grab the saber hilt. Luke’s faster, though, and that hand is on the floor and the Gethilian is howling in the space of a blink. The huge creature takes off running down the hallway, stump cradled against its chest.

And now it looks like it’s going to be all over but the cleanup, because two against Luke Skywalker is rarely a fair fight. He makes short work of destroying the other power axe and invites both his remaining opponents to stand down. When they don’t–when the human keeps firing that blaster and his partner lunges forward, claws out–you can _feel_ Luke’s apology before the lightsaber slides through the Gethilian’s torso and the human’s head goes rolling.

Luke deactivates the lightsaber and stands there for a moment, facing what he’s just done. You’re about to lower your blaster and go to him when another movement catches your eye.

They had one more partner, these bounty hunters. There’s a shadow stepping out from an alcove just beyond your hiding place. In the same second that light glints off the barrel of a blaster, you’ve turned, aimed, fired. The shadow clatters to the ground.

Luke jumps, clearly startled. His eyes go to you first, making sure you’re OK, then to the body on the floor behind him.

“Didn’t see that one,” he says.

“That’s ok,” you tell him. “I did.”

“Thanks.”

You slide your blaster back into its holster as you step out into the hallway. You don’t even realize your hands are shaking again until Luke reaches out, both his hands reaching for yours.

“You alright?” he asks. “You don’t look so good.”

The bandage over your upper arm is soaked through, and you realize now your sleeve is wet, too. “I’m fine,” you say, and you know he knows you’re lying, but you have a shuttle to meet and complaining won’t get you there.

Luke holds your hands a little longer–longer, you think, than makes any sense when you’ve just made a commotion in a public hallway and law enforcement could be by any minute now.

You try to ignore the sparks that his touch is sending up your arms.

“We’d better go,” you say.

Luke shakes his head as if waking up from something and lets go of your hands. “Yeah,” he says. “We’d better go.”


End file.
